Cuti Cuti Malayia: Langkawi 2009, Day 1

In between weddings and thanks to H1N1 I decided to go local for our holidays this year. I thought that was going to be a very easy decision but it was a decision far more difficult to make and implement. We have done Semenanjung Malayisa to and fro and round in circle clockwise and anticlockwise twice. Sabah and Sarawak at least once. And me being me always last minute with his travel plan made it more challenging. In the end I chose Langkawi as it has been six years since the last family vacation there and I decided to be more adventurous this time.

Day one: June 8, 2009, Monday

Five to 0600 we were already at the eKiosk trying to check in but the machine kicked us out. Were we too early? I do not know but certainly the kiosk failed on us. So we pushed our trolley to the counter and checked ourselves in. The nice lady at the counter did ask us whether the kiosk is working or not? I said maybe we were too early and smiled.

The breakfast cost me around RM80 the realization after a loud complaint from my wife when my daughter came back with the change. I said jokingly what do you expect a piece of timun already cost us RM1. The whole nasi lemak special was RM11.90 and there was nothing special about the taste. It is an economy of scarcity and a monopoly.

Six to 0700 we walked into the waiting lounge and waited patiently for our gate to open. At 0756 the gate was still close and was obvious that our flight would be delayed. We are only allowed to enter the waiting lounge at 0800 whereas the scheduled takeoff time was at 0815. No explanation given and we waited for a bit more. Since we were seated facing out aircraft we could see the going on down below. Within few minutes of waiting we saw the workers, Banglas to be precise, were busy loading our luggage. We witnessed first hand their definition of loading. Which was simply throwing things in at will. Was I surprised by this? Not at all but the idiots should have known that they obviously could be seen from the waiting area. Eventually it was announced that we could board and no one seems to be bothered to wait for further instruction and walked into the plane. We took our seats and waited. The waiting was longer than expected and I knew too well that there must be something wrong. However, the pilot did a KTMB on us by not giving us any information about the delay at all. So we waited in silent and for me with a sense of fault de javu. I did not pay to be treated like I was treated by KTMB. But trying not to spoil the beginning of our journey I just sat there managing Mar’s antics. I did not know it then but another incident was in progress that could spoil the beginning of our holidays as well. A couple was actually occupying Sam’s seat. But Sam not wanting to make a scene relented. Had I known of the situation I would have yelled at the couple saying ‘If both of you want to do this go with Airasia!’ With all due respect to Airasia, this couple’s mentality was exactly that. No respect for others.

Instead of 0915 we arrived safely in Langkawi at 1030. The pilot apologized while on the air and too late for me to even consider it. Again not wanting to spoil our holidays I blacked out the feeling and walked down the tarmac to the arrival area. Once I switched on my phone it buzzed with incoming missed call and messages from the agent that was going to rent me a car. I called him and was told that my car was already waiting at the car park. True to Langkawi form the key was also there which reminded me of the joke by my friend. He said if ever I am in a desperate situation just be at the airport parking lot and I can have a pick at any car parked there. Apparently most of the cars parked there belong to various car rental agencies and they parked their cars with the keys visible or at places that are not that difficult to find. As soon as we loaded the car we drove out of the airport towards Cenang beach. At that point in time the weather was already hot and walking around was definitely not in order. I called up the resorts to find out whether our rooms were ready to check in. The lady who answered told me check-in time was at 3pm. I corrected her that indeed our rooms were not ready for us. Since we were already at Cenang beach we decided to check out the new renovated Langkawi Seaworld.

As we walked along the corridor I noticed that walking towards me was someone very familiar. I took off my shade and stood directly in front of his path. He looked up and we eyed each other a minute, smiled and without saying a word hugged. The last time we met was in 2004 during our reunion in Seremban. Lokman Hakim Abu aka Ray Clemence and his family were already in Langkawi for two days and scheduled to leave the next day. We chatted a bit and not wanting to take much of his limited time we promised to have dinner together that night.

We knew we were not going to find anything new at the Langkawi Seaworld except for the seals and penguins. For Mar’s sake I paid the exorbitant fees for all of us. I said exorbitant because they priced the fee according to the western standard but not the service. Further more with that kind of price they are not going to attract a lot of Malaysians to the place. Anyway once inside we made the best of everything and as expected Mar enjoyed the experience the most. As in any tourist attractions like the seaworld at the end of the tour was their souvenir shop. However it was a light different in the Seaworld where the management decided to have various small stalls selling their wares. This one particular stall immediately attracted the attention of Baqir, Kak Cik and Mar as we walked out. It was a stall making a wax hand ran by two young Malay guys. They got interested to do their hands and looking at the process easy enough I agreed. Sam and I were more attracted to the two young Malay guys’ entrepreneurship nature. We chatted with them and admired their resolve and resilient even more. Since the process was easy enough I thought it would be a short once. I was wrong we had to wait for 40 minutes for the whole thing to complete. We waited with our stomach already growling to be fed.

As we knew that food can be a bit expensive in Cenang we decided to have lunch in Kuah and I took the Temoyong road there. That road took us passed the Shrimps the place where Sam and I had our seafood dinner once. I knew instantly where we were going to have dinner with Lokman that night. Nothing much has changed in Kuah except the main road to the jetty was closed for upgrade. The usual shops and players were still there the only thing we were told by Lokman’s wife was that now the prices are almost the same everywhere.

Since the main road was being upgraded gone with it the seaside Medan Selera. It must have been moved somewhere but I was not that serious to find where it is now. I just drove around and we could not find anything decent to stop to eat until I decided to just stop at one restaurant as we drove in the second time around Kuah and had our lunch there. The food was ok but what surprised me the price was not as cheap as before. While eating I tried to make sense of the town, of course with my benchmark being the old one that I used to, and found out nothing much has changed. So immediately I knew we would just be coming back to Kuah town to buy chocolates and do a little shopping of the usual.

Around 1510 I walked to the front desk of Awana Porto Malai to check in. As usual I presented the lady at the counter the two cards. my ID and credit cards. We went through the motion until she presented the key when I realized it was only for a room. I remarked ‘One room only?’ Implying I had booked two. Obviously I need two rooms and since my booking was done by my friend who happened to be somebody powerful in the state the lady did not say much but just to murmur and audible ‘the booking was only for a room’. Quickly she conferred with her supervisor and they decided to give me the next room which happened to be a connecting room to the first one given to me. I sensed they had to bump somebody to give me that room. Regardless whose mistake it was I still need another room. I could not have my family cramp in one room for two nights.

The room was quite spacious with two big single beds in both rooms. However because they wanted to have a bigger room space they sacrificed both the bath room and the WC which were separated. I guess the architect and the owner wanted their guests to enjoy the atmosphere more then the utilities. Well this could work for some people but not others. Especially those that were paying for a five star prices. To us it did not matter as long as we can enjoy ourselves and have beds to rest at night. Those paying for a sea view room like us then got compensated by the beautiful harbour like sea view. The holiday season rate for such room is RM275 but I, courtesy of my friend, got them at RM240 each. Maybe had I played my cards better I could get even cheaper rate. Nevertheless I am thankful to my friend who made my holiday possible and enjoyable. The only drag – there was no broadband connection.

After I took my bath and said my prayers I called Lokman to set our appointment for dinner. Since we were musafirs I offered two options, to have an early dinner or later after Maghrib. He could not commit at that point in time as his family were busy shopping and said would call me later. With that I decided to go down to the pool with Mar. Well actually Mar had been pestering me to go since we checked in. I actually wanted to go as well not so much to swim but more for the therapy for my clavicle that I broke late last year. Because of that, to Mar’s dismayed, I did not stay long. I had to promise her that we would be coming down swimming again the next day.

Back in the room I thought I was going to take a nap but the agent from the car rental agency I rented my car from called me to inform that he was coming over to give me a better car. Due to that I decided to go down with my camera to take some shots while waiting. Baqir and Mar decided to follow me. Just a few minutes, while we were busy takings photos Lokman called to say that they have decided to have an early dinner and almost at the same time our new car arrived. With that I called up to the rooms to inform the rest to get ready.

Despite driving from Cenang we arrived at Shrimps first. The place was empty and we were the only customers there. Sam, small Mar and I were there once tasting the food for the first time years ago. It was at night when we were there and nothing much we could see except lighted areas. That day there was a bit of daylight so we could enjoy the whole place a lot more. The commercial fish and shrimps ponds were down below like rows of small paddy fields very close to the edge of the Andaman Sea. Since we were the only one there I thought we could have the best table. Indeed I had the choice of a spacious sitting down kampong style gazebo but when we walked up we saw lizards droppings were almost everywhere. Initially we asked the girl to clean the place up. But after thinking and conferring it over we decided to move to the bench table across Sitting about ten minutes we realized the table was no better as the previous one. The place was littered with droppings. Not to waste any time we ordered our food and watched the girl clothed and cleaned our table. That was when my wife asked the girl honestly whether we were not going to have problems with droppings falling from the roof while eating. I was surprised after all this while they still could not solved the problem. Have they ever tried putting a layer of mosquito net as a ceiling? To her credit the girl honestly replied that she could not guarantee that we were going to have a pleasant dinner. With that we chose to have an open air dining under spot lights. That was the best decision of the night. As we were moving to that table Lokman and family arrived. As I recommended Lokman and wife, Fazlina, came with four of their children. Their eldest son chose not to join us.

Obviously Lokman and I could go on talking about old times but being a good husbands and fathers we decided to talk about our families and included everyone in the conversation. We learned about each other even more. Lokman and I having an unbreakable bond now became even unbreakable with our families in the relationship equation. For sure the next time we are down south we will stop over at their place. The good food eventually served and even with their freshness and good taste became the prop for the family gathering. We chatted, chatted and chatted, the food came and went but never seems to be able to satisfy our appetite for chatting. Just like playing chicken all of us were waiting for someone to give up first and call it a day. In the end our youngest hinted to us the fun, the good night and the gathering had to end. I paid the dinner, said our goodbyes (even this took us almost 20 minutes to accomplish) and departed Since Lokman would be leaving the next day I sadly said to myself when is the next time?

While waiting for Lokman and family to arrive earlier I called En Ali the mangrove boat ride operator to set and appointment fro our boat ride the next day. Since he suggested that the best time to feed the eagle was around 10.30 to 1100 am we agreed to meet at Killim Jetty around 10 am. Because of that we decided to cal it for the night and headed for our hotel.

There was a bright moon when we arrived at the hotel and it created a very serene environment deflecting shining lights of the quiet sea. I was tempted to sit around at the hotel’s boardwalk to enjoy the moonlit night and taking few photos. But once up in the room I misjudged myself and did not realized I was really tired. It must have been because of the heat. I changed and once my head was on the pillow I was gone.

You can view all the pictures for Day 1 here.

Kg Sokmek and Kuala Gandah, May 9-10, 2009

For a Pahang boy it was ashamed that I only going to the Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary now. Indeed it is better late than never and in my case the timing was never been better. And the thing that I like most about this trip it would be a camping excursion with the family again. This time with a big PT family as well. With the help of my good neighbors we made plan and it could not have been executed any better.

We would have been in the bus as well if not for the trip to KT to pick up Kakak. The kids would have loved it or I’d make sure they love it he he he. Secretly I was the one that was eager to be on the bus. We left at around .8.30am as soon as the bus arrived to pick the others. I knew we were going to be very early ahead of the slow bus. So I planned to stop for breakfast on the way out of Gombak later.

It was the usual Saturday morning traffic on the Seremban KL highway. I drove at a moderate speed so as to ensure I would not be too far ahead of the bus. The traffic on the MRR2 was better then the usual, despite not pushing the Ranger I was still very early when we passed Taman Melawati. On the way back to Raub last week we stopped at the Nasi Dagang place for breakfast and it was not as we expected. We opted to try the new Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa outlet. I did not wish to have the nasi lemak so I ordered Mee Rebus just like Sam. Mai, Baqir and Kak CIk ordered nasi lemak each. In the end all of us were disappointed with our selection. To us the outlet runs the risk of being just a so so outlet and if the owner is not careful a potential closure. Nevertheless we took our time there.

The Gombak Karak highway was it’s normal Saturday self. Some sections during the climb were closed for upgrading. Now without prompting I sped up and as we were climbing towards the tunnel Baqir said we just overtook the bus. I did not see it but indeed the bus was now behind us climbing slowly. With that speed I knew we would be about 40-45 minutes early when we reach the resort.

As I was familiar with the route finding the resort was easy and we pull over into it at approximately 1115. There was already a lady setting up what I presumed to be our lunch. I gave my salam and introduced myself as the group from Bangi and immediately she acknowledged me. I got my confirmation that we were at the right place and without waiting a moment we started to explore the place. While doing that Din called me to enquire the way in and about ten minutes after he arrived. The bus carrying the rest eventually arrived 20 minutes later. With their arrival officially started our Kuala Gandah excursion. The plan for the day was to have lunch, choose our chalet and go to the elephant sanctuary straight away. I decided to go with the bus and parked the Ranger within the chalet compound.

I just could not help to think that it would be wonderful if I had my bicycle when the bus took us through a steep undulating road to the elephant sanctuary. There were at least four steep climbs and would be a good workout no doubt. The day was a bit hot then the usual and took a toll on some of us. Being a Saturday it was a crowded sanctuary waiting for us. Since I did not care for anything else but to enjoy the area I just went with the flow. Baqir, Kak Cik and Mar reading my senses did not asked to do anything special as well but to enjoy the place the best we can. Aizam went in to register and came out with 10 yellow and a lot of red stickers. He started to gather us around and explained that the yellow stickers were for the elephants ride and the red just to join the other activities. When he asked who would want to take the ride all the children almost yelling put up their hands. But I knew better. We gave the opportunities for others to go for the ride and took the red stickers. Since, the caretakers would only take out the elephants at 1400 to start the day activities, being early, we just sat around waiting. It was suggested that we go into the building to watch the video show but the place was packed with people. In the end we just waited outside under the shade.

There were five elephants at the sanctuary chained up waiting when we walked in. Two big ones and the others of medium size. We started to gather around taking photos of them being prepared and hosed down to cool off before the activities. One of the small ones suddenly trumpeted out a long loud sound and immediately the brave souls that put up their hands for the ride started to return their yellow stickers. I just smiled.

The first activity was elephant feeding. The announcer started to brief us on the proper way of doing it and with the fruits ready in front of us we started to feed the elephants. I was busy shooting at will to care only once in a while looking over to make sure Mar was within my range. The fruits were gone as quick as they were brought outside as if the elephants have not been eating for a while. I guess it was due to the heat apart from been hosed down they had to eat a lot of fruits to cool down. Soon the announcer came on air to move us to the next activity, elephant riding. Initially we were made to understand that the elephant ride would take us through the jungle and denai nearby but instead the announcement said that it would only a ride in circle in the middle of the compound. I was even more not interested to ride. At the same time the keepers took out two calves for the others to be fed, play with and get close to. By now the crowd began to gain momentum and soon almost the entire compound was filled with visitors. Since none of us had decided to ride the elephants we spent our time moving around from one elephant to another. Mar. Kak Cik even Baqir were not brave enough to get close to any of them for me to have a clear shot of them with the elephants. I substituted them with other subjects that I found interesting like the cute European girl rubbing a calf lovingly. To be truthful I was lucky to be there actually.

Initially I was bullish on taking to the water with the baby elephants but after witnessing the state of the water in the river I backed off. I spent my time taking more photos of the happening around me. Funny thing was I was actually looking at more equally, if not more, excited people in the water than the elephants. As if they needed the bath more than the elephants. That was when the baby elephant decided to poo in the water and everyone closed by automatically scrambled out of the way. I stood on the bank laughing. Watching human being with their antics was more fun and rewarding for me. Closed by to the baby elephant taking bath was the platform where the rest with yellow tags gathered if they wish to get dump by the elephant in the water. Although I can appreciate the activity but I could not understand how fun could it be? Especially for the elephants.

The day was still hot and humid when we left the sanctuary. By the look on everyone’s face I could sense they were happy and glad to be there. So I was glad for that as well. As soon as we got to the ‘resort’ we had out late evening tea and said our prayers. The evening activities varied depending on your responsibility and wish. The kids were of course having fun exploring the place together. Rizad was on the boat with some of them boating around the pond. Some of us men were busy preparing for the night either building our tents or campfire. The anticipation for the night was too much for some of us. Others chose to enjoy the nice evening chatting by the pond and watching others with their activities. The whole thing reminded me of my childhood life in my kampong. So nostalgic at times. Of course being too familiar with the whole thing and what needed to be done I comfortably went through the motion. Firstly, putting up my tent followed by helping the rest building a campfire, catching fish and going around taking pictures. After all that it was just waiting for night to fall so that we could pray and walk across to our serving place next to the owner’s house for dinner. It has been a while since last I had been using a communal bath so much so I got caught up reminiscing while at it.

Dinner was rice with ‘masak asam’ ikan patin as the main dish and because of that we became vegetarian. I devoured the sayur and the ulam to compensate not being able to eat the patin. I was that hungry and had no complaint what so ever. What I like most about outing like this is that we were presented with a lot of opportunities to chat and got to know our neighbors a bit better. That’s what happened during dinner. I guess dinner was just the prop or tool for us to get together more. That’s how important get-together like we had to the community and yet for all the worldly reason that we have today by design or not we are always silo in our habit. In the truest sense this community get together is the way forward for us. After awhile we decided to walk back to our chalet as we still had our BBQ and campfire to start. Walking on the bank between the two fish ponds immediately brought back the memories of walking on my Wan’s paddy fields at night when I was young. Had we have homemade torch with us it would be so surreal and real. Even without that the beautiful full moon shinning on our right was more than compensate the limitation. I forgot to mention this fact to my children and I hope they are reading this.

Back at our camp we straight away started on the campfire and BBQ. Because of the hot dry day the campfire was easy enough to start and the children started to gather around playing. I had my guitar with me but I was lost as to what I should be playing. It was so obvious what I had in mind would not suit everyone’s there. Looking at the children sitting and standing aimlessly AIzam expertly managed to gather them around and cajoled them into a children sing along session. He was so adaptable with it that I really commanded him for doing it. Another talent discovered on the night. In our next outing I know who to trust with kid’s activities. The only setback was that there were not many teenagers for me to be useful to them. Baqir and Kakcik seemed lost and decided to find their own thing to past the time. I was useless with the guitar and was rescued from the agony when Rizad called his nephew to play. So I became the support cast by playing acceptable bass. From there on suitable songs started to be serenaded to accompany the children singing. This happened about two hours when, because of the days activities with the elephants, the children shown signs of tiredness and slowly they retired into their respective chalets or tents with their mothers. Mar just walked into our tent close by and crashed into a deep sleep. Immediately the songs started to change to evergreen and the contemporary. But I fared no better and ended up mostly being singer rather than a guitar player. Had not for the sound that came from us it would have been a still quiet night. I could imagine listening to the cracking fire eating up the dry woods and the symphony of crickets as the background music. We were oblivious of all these of course. The best part was there was not any mosquito or at least none came around to bother us. Amazing, the owner joked with us in the evening when someone asked about it. He quipped ‘yes there are mosquito but if you see one please let me know.’ I understood what he meant then.

Night slowly creeping leaving us to welcome early morning but we refused to budge and still playing and chatting. In fact the owner later came by to join us. We continued with our singing and chatting without having a conscious thought when to stop and go to bed. The truth is I sensed that no one was actually would want to be the person to say ‘let’s call it a day.’ It was so tempting to continue until morning and all of us were in a state of refusal. In the end Aizam was the brave soul who finally said ‘I am tired it is time to sleep’. Automatically all of us walked up to the restroom/toilet to ease ourselves and then flew into our nests for the night. It was not too soon enough I put my head down and into my sweet dream. I think it was sweet helped by the cool breeze blowing in through the tent’s ‘windows’.

My buzzer dutifully woke me up at 0545 and without missing a beat sat up to get ready for suboh. Sam was awake instantly as well and together we climb into our chalet to wake Baqir and Kakcik up. Since I thought there would be a lot of people at the washroom I decided not take my bath yet but just to clean myself and pray. But there was only Acong there and immediately after I said my prayers I went back to have my bath. Which was the right decision as the tap ran dry just before the day broke out. After my bath I straight away packed up my things so that I did not have to rush later.

I was walking along the pond to find something nice to photograph when I saw Rizad pulling out the boat with his children. I yelled out to wait for me and since Acong was also close by we got onto the boat together and started to pedal around the pond. It was misty yet beautiful morning around the area. The heat from the pond created an exquisite morning fog which few hours later enhanced by the mist coming down the valley from the mountain area. We chatted and became nostalgic in our own way. One definite agreement between the three of us was this would not be the last time we are doing the outing. We were already talking about Tasek Chini and other possibilities. Thinking about it now the options that we have could be Kuala Woh, Sungai Congkak, Gunong Ledang and of course Tasek Chini. From the boat we witnessed the area came to live as the day broke in. People going forth with taking bath and getting ready as well as a few already on the bank enjoying the morning. Had we had our bicycles with us then we would be flying to the elephant’s sanctuary or where ever already.

Breakfast was a non event for us as we prepared for the Deerland and eventually our trip to KT to pick up Kakak.

After breakfast we waited for the bus to arrive from KL before we could go to the Deerland. It was really hot by then and it was only 0930. The bus arrived at 1000 and the rest straight away packed in their luggage so that it would be easier later. As for us we were set to go even before breakfast.

The Deerland was about four kilometers from our chalet and going towards different direction from the Elephants Sanctuary. The owner was actually at the entrance when we got there and he even directed our bus driver to make a turn few metres away and park right in front of the entrance across the road. When I saw the entrance and the surrounding my first impression that this was going to be a fun and wonderful place to be. Indeed it was.

Our exciting journey for the day started by the owner himself gathering us around and gave his briefing about the place. We were lucky to be the first big group to arrive that day and we grabbed the opportunity and benefited to the fullest. Later our group was assigned to a specific assistant who took the role as your guides as well experts in zoology. Patiently he took us around and introduced to us their open participative mini zoo with deer as the main attraction. Open participative zoo means instead of us looking at the animals from a fence or guarded enclosure we were taken around to play and be around the animals. The deers were so tame that we could not believe that we were actually among them. There were several species of deers there and I was really surprise to find out that Malaysia deer could grow as big as buffalo. The assistants gave us small basket of cut fruits to feed the deers and as soon as they saw us with the bucket in drove they came jumping and jostling for the fruits. Feeding them became a fight to fend off some of them from nudging you down. They actually stand on their two feet to get to the fruits we were holding. Some got even their small basket snatched from them. A young lady was so scared that the beast would hurt her yelled hysterically. It was a funny as well as a worrying scene at the same time. I was trying very hard not to laugh but it was really difficult.

The Deerland assistant slowly took us around to be educated about other residents. Hedgehog, ferret, quills, snake, ostrich, birds, and a very friendly sun bear. By 1130 we were done with the place. To me it was the best ‘zoo’ that I had visited in my life. With that we gathered ourselves said goodbye to everyone and off we went towards KT.

Please click here for the photos.

On The Train, June 1, 2009

I was on the 1745 train home when it started to rain at KL Station. Until today I cannot really aptly describe the nice feeling that develops inside of me whenever I am looking out at a rainy day from a window. Especially a glass window. Looking out at the rain took me down memory lane very fast. Rainy season in Kuantan, Melody and First of May came in that order for me today. As always it created a nice nostalgic feeling. Rain somehow is an association to happy feeling for me.

Since it was a bit early for me today I did expect the train to be packed. But due the school holidays I did not expect it to be solid packed. Maybe parents would like to be early home to be with their children.

The Malaysian economy contracted by -6.2% last quarter and would remain the same in this quarter. It was projected to start improving in the second half of the year by few points and probably leveling off or in positive zone next year. What interesting in this analysis is that we are expecting Malaysians to react the same way as before? When indicators were not as such we got worried. With an entrained behaviour we should, but additional complexity came into play.

On The Train. May 29, 2009

We visited Digi head office yesterday and of course to me was not so much of a revelation but to witness the implementation level 5 office environment working in a ‘Malaysian’ company. If you do not understand what level 5 office environment it is an office floor that does not have walls where everyone do not own a permanent workstation. This applies to everyone from the CEO to the cleaners. I do not wish to sound too simplistic but that’s the idea. To be there for someone that is not familiar with it would definitely be an eye popping experience. The main driver for change was breaking down silo of communication and in the process of doing it they gain so much more. The success factor was the total commitment of their management to do it. Of course we may be hearing one side of the story but judging from the outlook of the people in the office they like working in that kind of setting.

Just as we are going around to view the spaces I saw Khaidir, a colleague from my TMM days, sitting talking with his colleagues outside of their ‘Bakery’ but did not stop to say hello as I thought I would be coming down later and would see him again. I should have known and took the opportunity when opportunity presented itself. Another lesson learned.

I just got off from our OD strategic discussion just now and what worries me is when I was asked about our success stories suddenly I just went blank. With all the success stories that we have I went totally blank

On The Train, May 26, 2009

I wanted to home early but I was still in the office around 1900 so I decided to say my Maghrib first. I knew I would be late for my neighborhood meeting.

As usual my timing was almost perfect but KTMB’s left to be desired yet again. The obvious impact was I was going to be even later than I already was. To mitigate the potential unnecessary stress I booted up my laptop and started to type and play around with my photo collections.

Baqir along with Sam and Mar arrived as soon as walked out to the parking lot and I went straight to my Persatuan Penduduk PT meeting from there. The main agenda for the meeting was on our new activities fro the year but as usual security issue took center stage. We have to realize by now that there isn’t straight and direct solution to this. Everyone has to be involved and take responsibility.